Monday, April 15, 2013

It
was no surprise that all had read this novel when it came out first.
With great keenness we came together to experience the thrill again
and share our appreciation. We kept in mind what Arundhati Roy said
of the novel: “It is easy to forget it is a political novel. It is
about caste, about violence, about contemporary things. … The most
ugly thing about our country, and our culture, is caste. It is there
in the book. And please don't forget that.”

Ayemenem,
with the Meenachal river sustaining its luxuriance, is the Eden where
the twins, Estha and Rahel, grow up. Arundhati Roy is its most diligent observer, recording
the ordinary things with the memorable precision of a poet's eye. Did
she keep a diary in her childhood, or is this entire world recalled
from the deep recesses of her adult mind?

Bobby (away facing), Kavita, KumKum, Priya, Thommo, Mathew, Sunil

The
most arresting feature of Arundhati Roy's style is the wealth of similes
and metaphors, at times overwhelming the reader like a pelting of hail.
Somewhere she remarks that the structure of the novel was
the most difficult part of the writing, but she lost the painstakingly-made architectural plan of the book in the
mêlée
at her place soon after the book
was published.

Bobby, Kavita, KumKum, and Priya

When
the eloquent homilies of her political books on power and
powerlessness are forgotten, this novel will remain, and be read and
studied. So why can she not oblige with a second novel, she who said
in her famous Come September speech:
“For
reasons that I don't fully understand, fiction dances out of me, and
non-fiction is wrenched out by the aching, broken world I wake up to
every morning.” See